Both the times the police came by here were after 9PM (I think the problem was due to a subwoofer), but even playing music loudly during the day or early evening won't endear anyone to their neighbors around here. Most of the people living in this condo complex work a lot of hours & want peace and quiet when they get home, I guess. I'm actually rather out of place living here, but my parents own the condo & I get "extra primo good" monthly rent price from them...

Well, you get what you pay for I guess Often I leave my subwoofer off for my family's benefit at night, but during the day its a different story ...

The terratec has no official coax output but a 5 volt output parallel on the toslink connector. With 2 resistors and a capacitor I have a coax spdif output.With something more than the standard 0.5 volt output.Connect it with 12 meter of 75ohm coax to my Sony DAT recorder.

Mine's a design proposed on the DIY speaker mail list ("Bass" list at the time) that ended up with some group purchases of compenents, so there are a few of them around. varying a bit in the details of thebaffle and woofer enclusure:

5 foot Carver ribbons in open dipole baffles (as used in Carver Platinum and Genisis I)NHT 12 inch woofers (as used in their SW3 sub and their top-line speaker)biamped with an active crossover designed by an engineer at Carver.

BTW: bought all the Revox stuff (I was born in 1979 so these are older than me...) for $300 but wouldn't trade it for $1000 worth be it Technics, SONY or whatever crap like this two I mentioned. Sound better than my friend's setup (HK Amp + Infinity Alpha Speakers - new).

I have a Denon AVR-1603 receiver powering my Canadian-made Energy Take5.2 speaker system (it's called 5.2 because there was a previous Take5) ... I am sure most of you haven't heard of Energy, but they compete with Bose over here. My satellites are quite small, but sound phenomenal, especially considering their size and price range.

i have the front speakers mounted to the wall, the rear speakers on stands behind my couch, and the subwoofer in the corner. I bought a package deal at Bay Bloor Radio in downtown Toronto, which came with a free Panasonic DVD-RV32 dvd player, and 120' of Monster Cable for my speakers.

I connected my dvd player via optical and s-video, my digital cable box is using digital coaxial for digital audio, stereo rca for the analogue, and s-video. my computer has an SB Live Value hooked up using stereo RCA-headphone cable.

Everything sounds fantastic, except I have to boost the subwoofer channel by an extra 3db when listening to music from the computer. When playing CDs in my dvd player, there is quite a bit more bass... not only louder, but deeper in range. It is quite annoying.

Sound Lab Pristine electrostatics or. when I want it LOUD, KEF 104/2's. Drive 'em with two halfer mono bridged 500's generating 1000+ watts per channel. Yes, it does play Funktown, the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and just about anything else plenty loud. Just look at the bottom of those old Stones record liners where it always says either, "Play it loud" or "Turn it up."

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I have both the Monitor Audio S8's and S10's on trial and can't decide which I want to go for yet. Some music sounds better on the S8's, other music better on the S10's. I'll vote if and when I make a decision.

Audiophile 24/96 > Arcam Diva A85 > MA S8/S10

I did try Kef Q7s too, they went back within the week, the S10's were alot better.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I have both the Monitor Audio S8's and S10's on trial and can't decide which I want to go for yet. Some music sounds better on the S8's, other music better on the S10's. I'll vote if and when I make a decision.

Audiophile 24/96 > Arcam Diva A85 > MA S8/S10

I did try Kef Q7s too, they went back within the week, the S10's were alot better.

Find a speaker that sounds best with both classic music or the latest Dr Dre hit (sorry, don't have anything else in mind). But having in mind that almost anything these days is able to boom and melt the wax in your ears with treble, look for tight bass, clean highs and MOST important - MIDS - the music has to have presence.

So if one speaker performs better in vocal range or the instruments in a classical piece 'come out' nicer than the other then pick up that one, you'll get used to the sound in time.

some manufacturers.. (hi-end) usualy give youa certificate with the speakers.. + a pampfleteover the components, design, building material..and the benefit from it.(ex: sonus faber) who actually.. build cabinets..after the "instrument" method..(a loudspeaker IS a instrument..)

if all serious loudspeakers in the store..had something like that..you could easely have filtered out 60%of the sheap builds.. on the marked.

After insulting my ears with Heco speakers until 1980 I built a pair of KEF Mini Transmissionlines which are still providing very good and neutral sound quality. Around 1990 they were replaced by TDL Monitor Compact, also transmission line, but a bit bigger

I have used for almost 7 years B&W P-4 (IMHO superb value for money), but have switched recently to Sonus Faber Concerto Grand Piano. Expensive for sure, but really classy stuff, and not picky on the program- a real allrounder. My wife just LOVES the looks of it too! On my puters I have Acoustic Energy Aego 1 (+Echo Mia soundcard) on the "good" puter, and Microsoft Soundsystem 80 (+Turtle Beach Santacruz soundcard) on the second one. Both perform quite well- regarding their pricetag.

DefTech speakers are known more for their abilities in a home theater applicaton. Their bipolar design (3 drivers fire forward, 3 identical drivers fire toward the rear, plus a 15" 500w sub in each tower) creates a very wide image. They do work well with music but you need to spend some time with the set-up as they need a lot of room to really sing.

I am using Sony ss-535 AV speakers connected to a Jolida integrated tube amp. I know this combination sounds rediculous but I have yet to find a set of speakers I enjoy more. I am working on building a computer to connect to the amp but I have yet to learn enough to get LAME work automatically with EAC. I am waiting until I can make better hardware and configuration choices to make the connection. Personally I think my ears are turning to tin but I guess you have to use what works.

Audiolab 8000Q Preamplifier and EAR 834p Phono Stage (3 x ECC83s). The Audiolab was A/B'd against a Musical Fidelity A3cr earlier thois week and it walked all over it!

Power amps are a pair of Tube Technology Genesis Monoblocks with Gold Aero E34Ls running in Superlinear at upto 100watts output. Alternatively I can use a pair of Rotel RB970s bridged into Mono giving upto 180watts output.

First post to the Hydrogen Audio forum. I'm using Paradigm Phantom speakers, with my LXI and Pioneer stereo connected to my computer's line-out. While not high-end sound, these speakers are certainly much better than the little ones included with the PC.

My front speakers are a pair of KLH 609S's (doesn't mean much to me) that I found at a place called Liquidation World, $100 for the pair... they're powered by a 50-watt 'Modulaire' amp that looks c. 1970's (I found it in the basement; it's older than me :P)... the rears are the pair Realistics I found with the amp, and they're powered by (get ready for it) the right one of a pair of reallyreallyreallycheap plastic computer speakers with a headphone-out jack on the front (I just know I'm gonna get flamed for that ;)

And, supplying all that cheap stuff is an SBLive Value. Somehow, it all works out...

I've heard much more expensive systems than mine, and they do sound appreciably different (in some cases very different), but to my ears I wouldn't say they sound any *better* as such, just 'more expensive'. Maybe I'm just too accustomed to this setup? But the nice thing is, it has this weird ability to make some pretty crappily encoded stuff sound good... I compared on some high-quality headphones and on the phones I could easily tell that 128kbps MP3 sucked compared to 160 or 192, but played over speakers it's almost imperceptible, in a good way. I can tell the difference between Ogg and MP3 though (the former sounds much nicer).

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Death to graphic smilies! :P(Stupid MSN.. I'll never forgive them for that... it took me 2 years to realise that (Y) was really a thumbs-up -- all this time I thought I was being mooned! --Or eaten by Pacman . . . )